Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Somehow, the world didn't seem so bad anymore.

Taichi couldn't help but smile as he shared a quick burger with Agumon before Yamato's concert. As usual, the dinosaur had an appetite fit for a sumo wrestler, finishing two hamburgers in less than ten minutes. If he didn't slow down, Taichi would be out of money for the next two weeks.

This was good, this was familiar. It was as if he was eleven years old again, his crest of courage hanging over his heart and power running through his veins. He hadn't felt remotely this good in a long time, not since –

Taichi winced inwardly. He usually tried to stay away from this particular train of thought, even though he rarely succeeded. Thinking of her didn't bring him happiness, not anymore.

He sipped his soda and peeked at Agumon, wondering if his companion had noticed anything. Thankfully, the digimon was now on finishing his second combo meal, and was steadily working towards the third.

He chanced a glance out of the window. There was a tent set up a five minute walk from the burger place, a long line of teenagers coming from the entrance. Taichi checked his watch, mildly surprised. Yamato's concerts were notorious for the long queues, but they usually didn't start this early. Must be the holiday rush, he reasoned. Good seats were hard enough to find for regular shows.

Taichi squirmed in his seat anxiously. He knew the other digidestined were bound to be in that line later tonight, including…

Sora. Sora Takenouchi.

Just thinking her name made his chest hurt.

He had known for years, ever since they were little. He couldn't imagine living without her; the longest he had ever been away was three months. When he had first realized that she had landed in the Digital World along with him, he had been elated. Best friends, always together. It seemed inevitable that he should fall so completely for her.

Recently, however, she had been distancing herself from him, and he didn't know why. Phone calls stopped coming; those that did come through were short and to the point. Conversation was clipped and brisk; their usual banter had been missing for weeks. Drilling everyone to the point of exhaustion, he desperately tried to find out what he had done to make her so angry. Why wouldn't she speak to him?

As usual, Taichi had turned to his other best friend: Yamato Ishida. Confiding an embarrassing amount of information to the blond, they discussed and debated various possibilities: stress at home, a bad grade, PMS. However, as time went by and Taichi dug further, more and more of his theories were proven wrong and he was left with empty hands.

Soon, a darker thought had entered his mind: what if something else had happened? The unthinkable, but also the only thing that could explain her aloofness: an infatuation. He toyed around with this particular thought privately, only bringing it up once to Yamato over the phone one night. Finding the resulting conversation a waste of time and energy, he devoted his spare moments to contemplating this horrible possibility on his own.

What…what if she did like someone else? What if her heart fluttered every time that guy smiled at her, the same way his did when she smiled at him? Did she dream of this guy's face, his voice, his touch? The thought was too much to bear. He longed to confront her about it, to ask whose name she doodled in her notebooks during those long lectures in class. However, he always seemed to lack the courage necessary to do what usually came naturally and just open his mouth.

But not today. Today, after the concert, he would ask her about it, and show her that no matter what she thought of the guy in her dreams, there was no one in the world who could love her as much as the guy who truly knew her.

A large, sudden burp from Agumon caused him to jump up in his seat.

"Sorry," Agumon apologized, blushing.

Taichi grinned. There was nothing like a violently orange raptor turning a bright red. "You're excused." He blinked, his eyes surveying the mount of empty wrappers threatening to overwhelm the flushed digimon. "I presume you're done?" he said, fighting the urge to laugh at his friend. Standing up, he helped Agumon throw away the trash as they left the restaurant. Checking the time on his cell phone, Taichi suggested heading on over to the tent, and Agumon agreed. They walked in silence for a little while, each lost in their own thoughts, until -

"I'm still kind of hungry," remarked Agumon.

"What?" exclaimed Taichi, caught between amusement and amazement. "You had four combo meals!"

"But I didn't have any dessert!" the orange dinosaur reminded him. "And there's always room for dessert."

Taichi sighed and shook his head. "Tell you what; I'll see if I can get you an ice cream cone or something after the show, all right?"

Agumon made a noise of pleasure before retreating back into silence, images of sprinkles and cherries dancing in his mind.

Taichi's thoughts, however, were much less sweet. His heart was pounding so hard he was convinced it would drown out the sound of concert. Despite the cold weather, his hands were sweating, and he found himself out of breath. He stared at the ground, willing each foot to take another step as he tried to calm down, but found it difficult when his mind kept screaming, She likes someone else! What are you trying to prove?

"Hey look, Taichi," said Agumon out of nowhere. "There's Sora!"

Taichi's head snapped up, his eyes following Agumon's pointed claw to a bright pink bird and a girl with fiery red hair.

His heart skipped a beat, but before he could give his mind a chance to stop himself, he shouted, "Sora, wait up!"

Chapter Text

Taichi sat on a bench outside a closed building, hunched over as his thumb scrolled through names his glazed eyes weren't reading. It was silent, save the distant sound of conversation and the constant beeping from his phone. The sun was slowly setting, shadows playing on the ground beneath Taichi's feet. He was alone, though if it was by choice he wasn't sure.

A cold wind blew softly, unnoticed by the teenager. His body instinctively shuddered, but he made no effort to warm himself.

"Sora! Wait up!"

He groaned as the memory began to catch up to him. He began to scroll through his phonebook faster, a single staccato note echoing through the streets. Maybe if it was loud enough, it could down out the sound of her voice.

"Oh, Taichi."

His fingers were shaking now, making it harder to breeze through the numbers. The beeping grew erratic; soon the phone slipped out of his sweaty palms, and he had to bend down to pick it up. Resuming the furious pace, he ran through the assortment faster than before, the phone reaching its limit. Soon, no matter how rapidly he pressed the button, the names would pass at the same speed.

"So, Sora? Are you going to the concert with anyone? Not that it matters...Just wondering."

"Damn phone," he growled. "Can't go any faster…"

He didn't want to stop. He didn't want to tempt fate and let the selection die on names he didn't want to see. Names he wasn't so sure he wanted on his phone anymore.

"No, I want to be available in case Yamato's free afterwards."

There was a loud crack as his phone hit the concrete below his feet.

Gritting his teeth, Taichi clutched his head as he felt the world began to spin slowly. His sense of up and down had been disoriented since the moment he realized that he had lost the only thing he thought would never change on him, no matter what.

He had lost his sky. He had lost his Sora.

"Oh, I see. Yamato, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Stop it, Taichi, stop it," he growled, gripping his head tighter as if a firmer hold on his mind could restore everything back to how it was before. A shooting pain traveled through his skull, and he winced in pain, loosening his grasp.

He looked up at the setting sun, a shining red, the colour of her hair. He felt himself getting dizzy again, and stuck his head in between his knees.

The sky is up, the sky is up. No matter what happens, the sky is up.

The world spun nauseously, and Taichi fought to keep his dinner down. Eventually, the churning in his stomach receded and he peeked down at the floor with one eye.

His phone laid screen up, a name brightly enveloped in a green light.

Mimi Tachikawa.

He snatched the phone and sat up so quickly he came lightheaded. He ignored it, his eyes staring at the name glowing back at him.

Mimi? Of all people, why Mimi? He hadn't spoken to her in ages; hell, she didn't even live in the same hemisphere anymore. So why her?

His hand had dialed the number and brought the receiver smoothly to his ear before he realized what he was doing. Wait a minute, was he really calling her?

Well, Taichi thought reasonably, it makes sense, sort of. Mimi wasn't the type of person to ignore a person in need, and the fact that he didn't see her everyday was a plus. He wouldn't have to deal with her looks of pity.

The phone had rung four times and he was about to hang up when he heard a groggy voice say, "Hello?"

At first, Taichi was confused; this was Mimi's phone, right?

"Hello?" the voice pressed, clearly irritated.

Suddenly, it hit him: she was speaking English.

Of course she would answer her phone in English - she did live in New York, after all. Nevertheless, Taichi was puzzled by the fact that she would answer his phone call in anything other than Japanese - she knew he was horrible at languages.

Mimi, obviously very annoyed by this point, began a long string of harsh sounds, scaring him out of his wits.

"Whoa, whoa, Mimi, calm down, it's me, Taichi," he said quickly, hoping she caught his Japanese.

There was a short pause, then, "Taichi?"

He nodded, and then remembering that she couldn't see him, said, "Yep."

"What are you doing calling me at this hour?" she snapped. "It's one in the morning! I have to get up early tomorrow!"

"I-I'm sorry!" he stammered. "It's just…well…"

"What is it?" Mimi asked after a moment. Her voice had changed; it was soft now, concerned.

"Um, well…Sora…"

"Sora?" Her sudden alertness spooked Taichi. How many emotions did this girl go through in the span of two minutes? "Is something wrong? Did something happen to her?"

"No, no, she's okay," he assured Mimi, wondering what he had gotten himself into and if it was too late to just hang up.

"Then what is it?" She was curious, and he knew there was no chance of leaving now. She was hooked.

"Sora…I mean…I think Sora's dating Yamato," he blurted in a rush. His heartbeat grew so painful he swore it was about to burst out of his chest, and he found himself out of breath. It was as if saying those three words had caused him to run a mile.

The line was silent for a long minute, causing Taichi to think she had hung up on him. Just when he was about to dejectedly end the call, she spoke up.

"Are…are you sure?" she said at last.

"I'm sure," he replied miserably.

He heard her sigh, and he imagined she had that look of pity on her face he had been hoping to avoid. Great. Well, at least he couldn't see it.

"Oh Sora," she said softly, so softly that Taichi thought briefly that his ears were playing tricks on him. "Yamato, of all people…?"

"Um, Mimi?" he said tentatively.

"Huh?" She sounded as if she hadn't been paying attention.

"Um, are you okay?"

The girl let out a small laugh. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Taichi couldn't help a chuckle of his own. She had a point.

"Taichi," Mimi continued on briskly, as if she was simply trying to get to the bottom of another silly rumor, "are you sure that she's dating Yamato? Ishida? What if it's just some other blond guy with a similar haircut - "

"It was Ishida, all right, she was waiting outside of his concert with a present for him!" he said loudly, wishing with each word he didn't have to say it himself.

"Maybe it was a Christmas pre - "

God, couldn't she get it through her thick skull? "MIMI! Sora and Yamato are dating! Or they're going to be, if they're not already! That's it! That's all there is to it! Okay? OKAY?"

Losing control over his emotions, he felt his voice crack and had to stop. Guilt seeped through his veins. She didn't deserve that. Mimi hadn't done anything wrong.

Then he heard a sound that made him catch his breath. It was a small cry, barely audible, but he was sure it was real.

He sighed, feeling worse than before. "I'm sorry, Mimi, I didn't mean to yell at you."

"No," she sniffed, "It's not you."

He frowned. "Then what's wrong?"

She gave him a hollow laugh. "Nothing. It's just funny how things turn out, that's all."

All of a sudden, a curious though hit him. "Did…did you like Yamato?" he asked, wondering if his theory was true or if it was just his despair talking. It felt out of the blue, but misery loved company, after all.

"Probably not as much as you liked Sora," she replied bitterly.

A calm silence fell over them, and Taichi soon felt a kind of gratefulness towards his fortune. Maybe when it came to love he had no luck, but at least his recovery call hit the mark.

"Oh Taichi, are you all right?" Mimi whispered worriedly. "I know how much you like her, and Yamato's your best friend, they both are…"

"Yea, that's why I have to be there for them," he responded, his heart heavy, "even though I'm not really looking forward to that."

Another beat.

"I can't believe them," Mimi said suddenly, her tone surprisingly scathing. "I mean, Sora doesn't know about my thoughts on Yamato, but – and no offense – it was obvious that you liked her. How could Yamato even entertain the idea of saying yes to her? And how could she make a move towards Yamato, knowing that he's your best friend? Seriously, what the hell? How could they betray you like that?"

"Well, Yamato technically hasn't done anything yet," said Taichi weakly. "At least not that I know of, for sure." He tried to fight the anger Mimi was invoking; he had suppressed it rather successfully for so far, but she was starting to make it difficult.

"Whatever, if he hasn't yet you know he will, eventually. He'll worry about you, but once you give them your blessing – which I already know you'll grant – he'll go on ahead, thinking everything's fine."

"Yea, you're probably right." Taichi placed his head in his free hand. "But what else am I supposed to do?"

There was a lull in the conversation at this point, and Taichi could hear Mimi tapping her fingers thoughtfully, her breathing slow. He wondered vaguely how much sleep she had gotten before he had decided to call.

"Nothing," she sighed at last in a tired voice. "There's nothing either of us can do, except…"

"Except keep on smiling and pretend everything is all right," Taichi finished for her, his heart falling into his stomach.

"Exactly."

As the silence between the two lengthened, Taichi looked up at the sky. The heavens had turned a soft rose, gradually becoming a deep indigo as his eyes reached the stars. Funny, he thought, how things changed so quickly without warning. He couldn't even recognize his previously bright red sky anymore.

"I think I'll let you go now," Taichi found himself saying. "I've kept you awake long enough."

"I'm sorry I didn't help," Mimi said remorsefully, though the fatigue in her voice was more pronounced than ever.

"Don't worry about it," he assured her. "I feel better now, thanks to you." Which, surprisingly, wasn't a lie; he still had that horribly empty feeling in his chest, but somehow it didn't feel so intense anymore. Knowing that he wasn't going to be the only one forced to smile through the pain lightened the load, if only slightly.

"You sure?"

"Yes, Mimi, thank you," he said, unable to keep from smiling. Her earnestness was endearing.

"All right, if you say so," she said doubtfully.

Taichi chuckled softly. "Go to bed, Mimi."

"Good night, Taichi."

"'Night."

There was a soft click, and Taichi turned off his phone. Looking up, he sat silently as the sky turned from dusk into night and the sounds of the concert echoed through the empty boulevard. When the streetlights turned on, he stood up stiffly and slowly made his way back to the tent, determined to act as if nothing had happened. He did bear the crest of courage, after all – if anything, that much hadn't changed.